There are few things more obnoxious than opening a news article in a new tab, only to be jump-scared five seconds later by a blaring video advertisement that automatically started playing somewhere halfway down the page. By default, Microsoft Edge allows websites to play audio and video automatically the moment a webpage loads.
This auto-play behavior is not only disruptive, especially if you are working in a quiet office environment, but it also consumes a significant amount of network bandwidth. If you are browsing on a slow internet connection or using a cellular hotspot with a strict data cap, these unprompted background videos can rapidly degrade your browsing experience.
You can strictly limit media auto-play across the entire Edge browser, forcing videos to remain frozen until you explicitly click the play button.
How to Block Auto-Playing Videos in Edge
You must change the global site permissions to restrict media playback.
- Open the Microsoft Edge browser.
- Click the three horizontal dots in the top-right corner.
- Select Settings from the drop-down menu.
- In the left-hand navigation sidebar, click on Cookies and site permissions.
- Scroll down the right pane until you find the “Media autoplay” section and click on it.
- Look for the dropdown menu labeled Control if audio and video play automatically on sites.
- Change the selection from “Allow” or “Limit” to Block.
Note: If you do not see the “Block” option (Microsoft frequently hides it in newer Edge builds), you can force it to appear by typing edge://flags/#edge-autoplay-user-setting-block-option into your address bar, setting it to Enabled, and restarting the browser.
With this setting applied, websites will load significantly faster and silently. You will have total control over which videos are allowed to play and consume your bandwidth.